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When starting or reinventing your company, it helps to have a concrete vision set in place. This vision should describe what you want your company to be and what you want your company to mean for you, your employees, your clients or customers, and your community.

Steps

Part 1

Create the Framework

1

Narrow down your topic. Before you can write out your vision, you need to ask yourself just how much your intended vision should cover.[1]

When setting a vision for a company, you'd usually come up with a vision regarding the mission and goals of your company overall.

On the other hand, you can also focus your vision on particular departments or portions of your company.

If you eventually hope to expand your company into different fields, for instance, you can either set a vision for your company in its current phase or set a vision for your company in its ideal final form.

2

Set a time frame. Choose a time frame you feel comfortable tackling. Usually, most visions cover a time frame between one and ten years, with the most common time frame being about five years.

You should still be able to visualize or imagine how your company can arrive at the point your vision covers, though.

3

List current accomplishments. Set the tone of your brainstorming session by thinking about all the positives currently related to your company.

Think about the type of work you want to cover and quickly make a list of personal and professional achievements that are related to that work.

Don't spend much longer than 10 minutes on this exercise. Your list does not need to be extensive. You simply need to give yourself a chance to focus on the positives instead of the negative obstacles standing in your path.

Part 2

Write a First Draft

1

Consider key questions. Set aside at least 30 minutes to honestly and thoroughly ask yourself what you want your company to accomplish. There are a few key questions you'll need to consider, and your first draft should address each one as clearly as possible:[2]

How should your company look? How large is it, what does it do, and what is it best known for? What will need to go on at the company on a daily basis? Why should anyone care about the work of your company?

How will you measure the success of your company? How important is profit in comparison to other aspects, like customer satisfaction?

How should your employees feel about their jobs? How do you want them to view the company? How do you want to feel about your own company as its founder?

How big a role will you play as founder in the everyday workings of the company? What kind of people do you need to hire and how big a role will each need to play?

2

Dream big and go with your gut instinct. Create the most exciting vision possible. You need to have goals that are worth writing about; otherwise, there isn't much point in writing out a proper vision for them.

Think about it this way: if you aren't excited (and maybe even a little afraid) at this early honeymoon stage, it will be nearly impossible to become excited about the vision of your company while working and struggling toward it.

For your first draft, stick with your gut instinct and write what comes naturally. Don't worry about what seems realistic and what other people will want to think. Censoring yourself now may cause you to set your sights too low.

3

Envision the future. Instead of thinking merely about how you want things to be, pretend that you are your future self, thinking back over the accomplishments and current position of your company.

Picture yourself five years in the future (or which ever length of time you set for your vision). Try to imagine your company at that time. Ask yourself how it looks.

Thinking in this manner can help focus your vision. Your dreams can still be big, but they should stay on track with your current position and direction. If you can actually imagine your company in a certain way instead of only wishing it would be a certain way, that goal can probably be accomplished.

4

Think past yourself. If you want your company to thrive, you'll need to make sure that others outside of the company will see its value. That means thinking beyond your own interests.

Your company will need to solve real problems or address real concerns. If it is unable to do so, it will never be able to truly touch the lives of anyone else, and customers/clients won't have much interest in helping you maintain it.

5

Weave your personal passions into the draft. As the founder of your company, it's only natural that your personal goals will blend with your professional ones. Some of your personal goals may need to be edited out during the revision stage, but for now, include any that seem to naturally fit in with the vision you have for your company.

The key is to focus this on personal goals with some connection to your professional life since these goals will naturally impact the way you do business. For example, if you want to retire early to spend time with family or pursue other plans, you can include that in your draft.

Personal goals that have no connection to your company should be set aside. For instance, a personal weight loss goal probably wouldn't offer much direction regarding your business practices, so it doesn't have any place in a vision statement regarding your business.

6

Remember your values. Be honest and clear about the values you hold for your personal and professional life. If your company violates these values, you may not be able to maintain any enthusiasm for the vision you've set for it.

This can include both external values, like a desire to be active in the community your company is based in, and internal ethics, like a commitment to fair and honest business practices.

7

Write quickly. You might think that mulling over your first draft for days would create a better vision, but oftentimes, that isn't the case. Write quickly while working on your first draft instead of dragging the process out.

Ideally, you should spend 15 to 45 minutes writing out all of your ideas at once. Resist the urge to start editing yourself during this time.

Don't think too deeply about what you're envisioning at this time. Simply write your ideas as they naturally come to you.

Part 3

Fine-Tune Your Vision

1

Read through your first draft. Set your first draft aside for two to four days before returning to it. After the ideas have had a chance to settle, pick it up and start reading through it again.

Don't erase any part of your first draft. You might feel inclined to immediately delete anything that seems frightening or out-of-reach, but once your initial anxiety calms down, you might realize the idea wasn't so unrealistic after all.

As you read, consider whether or not this vision really fits your company. Ask yourself which parts make you feel inspired and excited, or which parts fill you with a sense of dread. Pay attention to both your emotional and intellectual reactions to help you determine your current draft's strengths and weaknesses.

2

Get real. The revision phase is when you have to start being more realistic about your vision. This does not mean reducing the size or scale of your dreams. It does, however, mean focusing your vision on dreams that are achievable.

Pick out vague statements like, "We're busier than ever," and try to make them more specific and concrete. Define your success using projected sales figures or a similar quantitative system.

Elaborate on the steps you'll need to take if you want to reach each end goal. If you can't picture the steps, that goal may not be attainable—at least not yet, while your company is still at its present size.

3

Revise and rewrite. After you can figure out what works and what doesn't work in your original draft, it's time to start a second draft. This version of your vision will need to more concise and detailed than your first.

Start from scratch with a fresh word processor document or sheet of paper instead of altering your original draft. That way, you can still return to your original draft if the tone of your second draft doesn't seem right.

You will probably need to write more than one revision before you can define your company vision as accurately as possible. Make sure that you don't get stuck in the revision phase, though. After you've written your fifth draft, you should probably force yourself to move onto the next step, even if your vision still doesn't feel perfect.

4

Ask for outside input. It is usually a good idea to seek the advice and direction of someone you trust to help you fine-tune the final version of your vision. The ideas might make sense in your own head when you read them, but they also need to make sense in an outsider's mind, too.[3]

Seek trusted support from specialists, coaches, mentors, business partners, and experienced colleagues. Anyone who is trustworthy and has any experience or insight related to your company's work can be a good source.

Ask for general input without asking for opinions about certain parts of your vision. Your reader's unguided thoughts will usually tell you more than guided advice can.

Keep an open mind and take everything under consideration, but remember that you are under no obligation to change any part of it when all is said and done.

5

Share the vision with its intended audience. After you've fine-tuned your vision as much as possible, hand it over to the other people who will help you set it in motion.

Be prepared for questions. A vision answers the question of what your business is without describing how it will become that. Address their questions and concerns as thoroughly as possible, but don't fret too much if you don't have all the answers just yet.

Make sure that everyone who will play a key role in implementing your vision can agree to it. If key players are working toward a different vision, the company could collapse.

Article Info

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 5,421 times.